Do Not Go Gentle
by Senka Hitomi
Summary: NejiTen oneshot. Spoilers for Chapter 614. If you have not read Chapter 614 and don't want it ruined, don't read this. "Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright/Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay/Rage, rage against the dying of the light."


_Disclaimer: Naruto is the creation of Masashi Kishimoto. _

* * *

_Gently, now, gently. Breathe in, breathe out, because everything is normal, everything is fine._

* * *

"You've got to come at me with killing intent," he insisted, snatching the kunai from her hand. She let go of it immediately, reflexively stepping away from him.

"I shouldn't be able to do that either." He scolded. "Try harder."

Tenten suppressed a sigh as she readied herself again. Hyuuga Neji had demanded nothing short of perfection from his training partner, working her to the bone at every opportunity. Tenten had known life after the academy would not be simple, but she had never expected this. Neji was unyielding, almost inhuman in his constant drive to work harder and train more effectively.

After the past three months, Tenten almost _was _ready to kill him. She was getting tired of being berated, day in and day out, admonished by the genius who never seemed to miss a thing. As she opened her scrolls, she directed every ounce of fury she had towards his slender form, crouched defensively across the training field.

This time, a kunai caught his shoulder, and the explosion of one of her tags rocked him backwards, causing him to lose his footing long enough for her to exploit an opening. He was flat on his back before he could even fully comprehend what happened.

Standing over his limp form, she was more than a little apprehensive. Would he be angry, now that she had finally come after him with the entirety of her strength? Or would he finally be satisfied, knowing that his constant criticism had finally produced results?

After a moment of stunned silence, the Hyuuga opened his eyes again, fixing her pointedly with his lavender gaze.

Within seconds, Tenten found herself lying flat on her back, the breath knocked out of her. Neji hovered above her vision, his gaze assessing.

"You didn't follow through. I told you, killing intent."

It wasn't exactly praise, but for now, Tenten would take it.

* * *

_Shift away when a hand falls on your shoulder, a shaking hand, washed with the unceasing tears of its owner, reflexive, necessary. Keep breathing, in, out, in, out, rhythm in time with the steady drone of the eulogy. _

_And wait._

* * *

She limped to training that day, and he knew immediately something was wrong. She could barely walk straight, much less train, though she tried her hardest. Still, it was something too obvious to hide.

He tried to inquire, but she shut him down at every opportunity, so he was forced into subversive methods. When he touched her back, she hissed with pain, doubling to her knees with fingers clenched bone-white around her torso. His second touch was gentler, caring – when she lifted the fabric of her tunic to show him the injury to her back, he couldn't suppress a small gasp.

The wound looked like a massive spider bite: a red mark in the center with veins spiraling out, painted in sickly greens and purples, only a reflection of the damage beneath the surface.

"Did she do this?"

Tenten could only nod. What more was there to say? Neji had seen the whole fight. The hopeless fight, doomed from the start, destined to failure, as Neji himself might have claimed. She had not been conscious for the injury, but it had quickly made itself manifest.

"We don't have to train today."

Tenten shook her head vehemently, squeezing the words out between waves of pain. "You have another match in a few days! We can't just sit idle. You… you need to try out the Kaiten."

"Another day." He countered. He knelt beside her, watching until she had the strength to meet his gaze. "You need to see a medic."

She protested, but in her state, it did little good, and the passage of a few moments found her supported by Neji on their way to the hospital.

For his part, Neji didn't leave until the testing was entirely finished and he was sure she was comfortable. He even gave her hand a gentle squeeze before he left, offering what passed for a smile on the Hyuuga's normally stony countenance.

He was changing, Tenten decided, and she realized she liked it.

* * *

_Just don't think. Don't think about the words being said, about all the potential lost, the grief of the main family. Don't think how he died protecting her. Don't think about the blood, so much blood, dripping like a leaking faucet from the gaping holes in his chest. So many holes, too many to count, but empty, all empty, hollow, gone. Don't think about the clear forehead, beautiful pale skin where there should have been a scar. Especially don't think about the pain, how suddenly losing so much must feel, because then you'll think about all that you've lost, too much. Too much._

* * *

She could have kissed him with relief when he came out of surgery, but he was still too weak, too fragile for her to even approach him, much less engage in a gesture that would likely as not give him a heart attack. As it was, she settled for waiting anxiously outside of the ICU until finally, _finally_, he was moved to a regular room and allowed visitors.

He slept much of the time, and other people ducked in and out – Shikamaru, various members of the Hyuuga clan, Gai-sensei – but Tenten remained by his side regardless, curled up in the corner chair, drawing new diagrams for her weapons.

When his eyes finally fluttered open, her system almost went into shock. It took everything she had to quell the shaking in her limbs, to lift her hand to his without betraying her fear.

But the fear was forgotten when he smiled.

It was small, but it was beatific. He soon lapsed back into sleep, but Tenten couldn't clear her head of the image. The pure radiant joy of his smile, entirely unguarded, made her feel more alive than she ever had.

Even if she never saw another like it from Hyuuga Neji, she had that one memory, too sacrosanct to ever mention, even to Neji himself.

When he inquired later about how often she'd been to visit, she told a white lie, claiming that it had been frequently, but she couldn't recall the specifics.

* * *

_Breathing becomes difficult when it hitches in your abdomen, broken by the uneven gasp of your lungs and your diaphragm slowly growing out of sync. Take deep breaths, calm the nerves, but it has ceased to help, and the sobbing has started, quiet, quiet, but echoing louder every moment. _

* * *

"Are you alright?"

Tenten smiled, shrugging her shoulders. "I'm fine. Definitely not dehydrated now!"

She hadn't expected the joke to get a smile out of him, but she also hadn't expected such a stern reaction.

"Tenten, this is serious! You could have died, and I…" he stopped himself, and she saw his gaze shift nervously. Gai-sensei and Lee were far ahead, racing back to Konoha at top speed. The remnants of Team Seven were also somewhere on the path before them, though setting a more leisurely pace than the two bizarre beasts of Konoha. Neji and Tenten had somehow managed to fall behind.

"You… what?"

This time, he stopped in the path altogether, catching her shoulder to indicate that she should do so as well. His gazed searched hers probingly.

"I think you know what I mean."

"Neji, I love you."

Tenten gaped at her own words. That had _not _been what was supposed to come out of her mouth. She had intended to say something like "Stop being so cryptic" or "I'm your teammate, not a mind-reader," but somehow that had slipped out instead. Now, she was left to stare at him like a cornered animal, too afraid to move or even speak, lest something even more mortifying slip out of her mouth.

Emotions warred for control of Neji's face, and Tenten didn't even recognize all of them. Confusion seemed to be the most predominant, and that appeared to be the one he had settled on by the time he spoke.

"That was… not the response I was expecting."

Tenten doubled over with laughter. Trust it to Neji to make the understatement of the century.

A hand on her wrist made her stop abruptly, and she looked up to find him staring at her more intensely than he ever had. When he kissed her, she was only mildly surprised.

"Just don't put yourself in unnecessary danger, please. And particularly don't make light of it."

It wasn't exactly a confession of love, but from Hyuuga Neji, it might as well have been.

* * *

_And then come the tears. Tiny rivulets, big fat droplets, huge ugly streams of tears that mar your face and draw the eye of everyone around you. If only they would just leave well enough alone, instead of giving those pitying glances, the ones that don't understand that he was more than just a friend, more than just a teammate._

_He was _everything.

* * *

She cradled his head in her hands, stroking his hair and drawing herself as close to him as possible. Tomorrow was a day unlike any other they'd ever faced, and she was scared, scared to the point that if she could have just stayed here, clinging to him as though he were the anchor on her sanity, she would have done so in a heartbeat.

But her responsibilities lay elsewhere – both of theirs did – and there was no escaping that.

He wrapped his arms around her waist, kissing her gently, murmuring quiet words of comfort. Most days, they would have assuaged her fears, but today, they had no effect.

They spent their last few moments alone basking in the silence, trying not the think of the blood in days to come.

* * *

"Tenten."

Lee's voice sounded as unstable as Tenten felt, but at least he was trying. That was more than Tenten could claim. She had tried to maintain some semblance of calm, but it was gone now, and here she stood, bawling like a child in front of a crowd of people, all mourning terrible losses.

Lee put a hand on her shoulder again, but she shoved it away viciously, her whole body consumed by the wracking sobs that seemed to spring up from shadowy places inside of her, leaving them even more empty than they had already been. It was too much, too much to bear and too much to hold, and all she could think was that he was dead, dead, _dead _and she was completely helpless.

She hadn't realized she was repeating the word aloud until Gai-sensei locked her into his embrace, his strong arms enclosing her shoulders. At least his bulk helped to mask her hopeless sobs, and when he pulled her away from the crowd of mourners, she didn't protest. Only when she was far enough away did he release his grip.

She fell instantly, sinking into the earth like a boneless ragdoll, the grief at last too overwhelming.

* * *

"_So, do you still believe in destiny?"_

_The Hyuuga genius shrugged his shoulders, smiling enigmatically. "Perhaps. Perhaps we all have a destiny we must fulfill… but that doesn't mean we don't have choices."_

_Tenten smiled at the young man next to her, stretched out on the training field, his whole body the very image of calm. _

"_You really think so?"_

"_Of course." He smiled, a quiet indication of victory over the taunts of his inner demons._

_She sat with him until the clear, blue sky faded into the darkest black of a moonless night._

* * *

_A/N: So... yeah. I thought last week was bad with Inoichi and Shikaku, and _clearly_ I was wrong. This just... wow, Kishimoto. Wow._

_That being said, for those that are following The Road to Recovery, I don't know if I'll be able to continue. I know that this is a silly reaction to a character's death, but I really am not sure I can continue writing for this pairing at the moment, when Neji _clearly_ died. I know the point of fanfiction is to extend the canon and allow for a different take on things, but... I dunno. It's just a bit too much. _

_Hope you all enjoyed the one-shot. Sorry, I know it's really angsty, but... closure for the pairing, I guess? I'd still love to hear what you think, so please review, if you'd be so kind._

_Best wishes and happy reading._

_Senka _


End file.
